EU:German organisers threatened bratwurst and beer, but Europe's culinary diversity won out in Berlin yesterday.
Belgian waffles and Polish pierogi competed with Irish salmon and Darina Allen's orange sponge to please the taste buds of crowds at a huge 50th birthday party for the European Union at the Brandenburg Gate.
Away from the bureaucracy of the Berlin Declaration, Berliners and international visitors enjoyed the glorious weather, the open-air party and the kilometre of tents offering delicacies from the EU's 27 member states.
The Ireland tent was overrun soon after it opened after word got out that the Irish were giving away free food and, even better, drink! Good-humoured Bord Bia staff performed miracles with loaves and fishes to feed the hungry masses, while patient Irish embassy staff manned the door and taught the Germans a thing or two about Ordnung.
"We've gone through half a dozen sides of salmon and 12 brown breads," said Liam MacHale of Bord Bia. "My wife baked the bread - she's Brazilian but she followed the recipe closely." For the rest there was chocolate, books and a tombola (over-18s only) with extremely good odds.
The stout came to an end after the 200 glasses walked out the door.
Even without the black velvet, the tent was swaying by early afternoon to The Black Velvet Band, helped along by the free whiskey - 10 cases were emptied after five hours yesterday.
"The crowd's been very good- natured and the weather's been fantastic," said Siobhán McManamy of Bord Bia. "Just as well, otherwise I'd have been sitting on kilos of cheddar cheese." Darina Allen's orange sponge cake - moist and sweet in exactly the right measure - went down particularly well and queues of people waited patiently all day long outside the tent for their taste of Ireland.
"We're huge Ireland fans," said the Berliner Uwe Ramm, stating the obvious in a bright green "Ireland" sweatshirt.
"I'd love to run away and knit sweaters on the Aran Islands," said Marga Reinhardt, "but I don't think I could afford to live in Ireland; everything's just too expensive."
Queues were noticeably missing the night before in Ireland's contribution to Berlin's big club night. A lonely DJ sat on a stage with his laptop and mixing what sounded like incidental music from a Japanese horror film.
A languid crowd smoked and lolled around on sofas, as the word "Happening" was flashed in huge letters on a video screen, an ironic commentary considering the low-key atmosphere. The only Irish part of the party was the staff drinking cups of tea behind the bar. Irish clubbers were few and far between.
Packing them in a short distance away was Berlin-based Irish tenor Paul McNamara. He wowed an enthusiastic crowd at the Friedrichswerder church, opposite the foreign ministry, with songs based on the literary texts of Thomas Moore and James Joyce.
Berlin's EU birthday party was hailed as a huge success yesterday evening. How much goodwill it has fostered towards the EU and how much the weekend's success was down to the EU itself remains unclear.
"I was coming out tonight anyway, so the EU had little to do with that. I still had to pay in too, no free ride," said Marco at the Czech club on Saturday night as he watched three performers making electronic music on laptops, a kind of Kraftwerk jnr. "I doubt anyone here cares much about the EU, to be honest, but at least we're dancing together and not killing each other."